Celebrate? Monday is Tax Freedom Day in Illinois
By Benjamin Yount | Illinois Watchdog
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois workers have to get to the end of the day Monday before they can start working for themselves.
JACKPOT JUSTICE HAS A PRICE: Akin says Illinois’ hell holes hike the hidden lawsuit tax.
Illinois’ Tax Freedom Day, the day workers have earned enough to cover their federal, state and local tax bills, is Monday.
Travis Akin,executive director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch, says part of the blame is the state’s judicial hellhole.
“The hidden lawsuit tax,” Akin explained, is an estimate of the cost of what it costs taxpayers to litigate the thousands of cases that go through Illinois’ courts each year.
“The latest figure is $857 per person, per year,” he said.
Akin said taxpayers see their property tax bill each year, and they notice when more money is taken out of their paychecks. But taxpayers don’t see the true cost of the courts.
“These are the costs that are built into the price of goods and services,” Akin said. “When a company is sued, they don’t absorb those costs. Just like when we raise taxes on businesses, those costs are passed along.”
Akin said Illinois’ judicial hellholes — Madison County, St. Clair County and Cook County — do nothing to trim the cost of the judicial system.
Akin’s group has long pushed for tort reform and is critical of what it calls jackpot justice in Illinois and across the country.
Illinois taxpayers are the seventh to the last in the nation to reach Tax Freedom Day. New Jersey has the latest Tax Freedom Day, May 9.
Contact Benjamin Yount at Ben@IllinoisWatchdog.org and find him on Twitter @BenYount.
